Number of vehicles in Bengaluru rises by a mind-boggling 6,099% in 40 years

There are 46.54 lakh two-wheelers, 13.01 lakh cars, 1.35 lakh taxis and 1.71 lakh autorickshaws in the city. All this, with a population of just over a crore.

ET Bureau|

Updated: Mar 24, 2017, 12.50 PM IST

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While the vehicle boom overtook the city, every other piece of infrastructure was left far behind.

The current vehicle population in Bengaluru stands at 67.22 lakh. In the absence of an efficient public transport system, private vehicles dominate the city’s landscape. There are 46.54 lakh twowheelers (70%), 13.01 lakh cars (19%), 1.35 lakh taxis and 1.71 lakh autorickshaws. All this, with a population of a little over one crore.

When the city’s population was 16.64 lakh (in 1971), the vehicle population was just around one lakh. Nobody – not even the planners – saw what was to come. So, while the vehicle boom overtook the city, every other piece of infrastructure was left far behind.

Bengaluru in 1964

The city’s road length, for instance, was 960 km in 1974. While the vehicle growth from 1976 to the present is 6,099%, road length increased by 1,254% only (now at 13,000 km).

Only 586 petrol pumps fuel the city’s vehicles. The shortage of petrol stations is attributed to high land prices and low revenues from sale of fuels. In 1970, the city had 94 petrol stations.

Bengaluru in 2016

The city’s traffic police wing was formed in 1930, with a staff strength of 40 policemen, in the Halasuru Gate police station. The current strength of the traffic police is 3,462.

The first traffic signal was installed at the Town Hall — then, the busiest junction — in 1963. The junction, in 1962, saw 27,000 vehicles (including 14,000 bicycles and 11,000 automobiles) crisscross it every day, between 8 am and 8 pm.

The number of traffic signals went up to 11 in the 1970s. MG Road - Brigade Road Junction, Oriental Circle, Basaveshwara Circle, Malleswaram Circle, Corporation Circle, City Market Circle, State Bank of Mysore, Minerva Circle, Bharath (Talkies) Circle were all signalised.

At present, there are 353 traffic signals in the city and 193 roads are one-ways.

Did you know? ► By 1831, a road connecting Naikneri and Mysore passed through Bangalore, and there was another road connecting Bangalore and Harihar. The latter was perhaps the only road worth the name, according to a British colonel’s report.

► These roads, and most other pedestrian roads were not in good condition. It is said that people moving towards Bangalore were stranded for days with their luggage due to bad road conditions in the rainy season.

► During 1831-56, a sum of Rs 20.75 lakh was spent on roads in the Bangalore district.

► By 1920-25, there were 239 km of Provincial roads and 732 km of district roads.

Improve Public Transport Urban mobility expert Ashwin Mahesh said the registration of new vehicles could only be brought down by improving public transport and walkability. “About 40-45% of people in Bengaluru use public transport. With easy accessibility of buses and improving suburban rail system can take this number to 60%. The road should have uniform carriage ways with wide footpath for people to walk,” he said.

Look Beyond Roads “Upgrading road infrastructure does not solve traffic congestion,” MA Saleem, former Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru City, said. “The registration of cars cannot be stopped as it is the aspiration of the people rather than a means of conveyance. At any given time, not more than 15 lakh vehicles are on the road in Bengaluru. There are many who use BMTC or Metro despite owning a private vehicle. Only a good and affordable public transport system can be an answer to Bengaluru’s traffic,” he added.

Mobility: Then and Now, through Personal Stories

Walking: “Bengaluru in the ’70s and ’80s had a lovely tree cover and the condition of footpaths was much better than what it is today. Now, at any given point, pavements are constantly in disrepair as they are being cut either for electrical wires, water pipeline or broadband cables and so on. Vehicular traffic across cities of the world have increased. But in cities like London, New York, Paris, the effort has always been to preserve the inner city and focus on creating easy walkways so that people are encouraged to walk. This is true for even newer cities of the world like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Cambodia among others. Urban planning and execution are key to building beautiful cities. Sadly, even though Bengaluru had access to engineers from the time of M Visvesvaraya, it never leveraged it to plan the city better.”

— CAPTAIN GR GOPINATH, Founder, Air Deccan

Cycling: “We’ve never had good public transport. So even when we were younger, we ended up waiting for hours for a bus that would never come. There was no point depending on it. BTS was Barthini Thadiri Swamy (Kannada for ‘I’m coming, please wait sir’). If you wanted to get anywhere on time, cycling was the only option. From the late ’70s till mid-80s, I was cycling. Even if that meant going from my residence in Rajajinagar to MG Road for a movie. Today, I do a combination of taking the bus, metro or my personal vehicle. We don’t even have a proper metro infrastructure to speak of. So I’m not surprised that the number of vehicles has increased so much. We probably have the worst traffic after Kolkata.”

— KANCHAN KAUR, Vice-dean, Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media

Biking: “I was 17 years old in 1987 when I first rode Vijay Super and Yamaha RD350 belonging to my elder brother. There were not too many traffic signals nor policemen. In the 1990s, when I got my own Yamaha RX100, my friends waiting for me at Thom’s Café could hear my bike from two-three blocks away. Such was the low noise level. Braking was also never a concern. Today, on the other hand, disc brakes in bikes and anti-skid braking system (ABS) in cars are needed. Driving my father’s Ambassador on Mosque Road, I could take a u-turn with great ease. Today, even a two-wheeler cannot turn without stopping traffic.”

— KARUNAKARAN JOSEPH, Entrepreneur

Driving: “Zipping a Maruti-800 to my design store on MG Road in the ’80s was a prestigious thrill like cruising a Ferrari on Lavelle Road today. The delivery time for the car used to be four long years, which made it the epitome of luxury. Today’s one-ways like St Marks Road and Infantry Road were two-ways. Getting around CBD took ten easy minutes. This timing has increased by four times since. Today, one clocks a three-hour return trip from MG Road to Whitefield. This adds up to two meaningless months spent on a road in a year.”